Mind the words.(Siegfried; Tristan und Isolde)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 28-DEC-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

Siegfried; Tristan und Isolde, Act I (Barbican)

The Barbican has temporarily become the Bayreuth of the North, though fortunately higher musical standards prevail here than in the place itself. The latest instalment of the Ring doesn't have by any means an ideal Siegfried, but Stephen O'Mara, a youngish American, is at least personable, has an easy presence on the stage, and has good musical intentions, even if his voice often fails fully to realise them. If he is overparted, then so is pretty well everyone else since Melchior; though he does need to free the top of his voice, which tends to turn tight in climactic passages. More than that, and in common with the rest of the cast, he needs to listen to records of the exponents of the Wagnerian roles during the finest period of Wagner singing, from about 1920 to a few years after the second world war, and take note...

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